20110617

First 100% Islay whisky produced

William M. Dowd photo illustration

• This is part of "Gotta Have ...", a series of occasional postings on unusual spirits products.

The Kilchoman distillery, located on Scotland's Islay, on Thursday launched the first-ever 100% Islay-produced whisky. That means it was produced from barley grown, malted, distilled, matured and bottled on-site.

The six-year-old Kilchoman likes "firsts." It is the first distillery to be built on Islay for 120 years.

"I set this project up because I wanted to do things slightly differently, and show the world we could produce a single malt where all the ingredients were produced locally," said Anthony Wills, founder and managing director.

The farm distillery produces about 100,000 liters (about 26,417 gallons) of alcohol annually. The Kilchoman 100% Islay spirit is matured in a combination of bourbon barrels from Buffalo Disttillery in Kentucky and Oloroso sherry butts from Miguel Martin in Jerez, Spain.

This will be a tough find. The limited edition release, at 50% abv (100 proof), is priced at £69 (US$112). A special edition, of which only 1,060 bottles are available, is presented in a hand-crafted American white oak presentation box at cask strength of 61.3% (122.6 proof). It is available only from the distillery, priced at £149 (US$241).